Both the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets have big issues with their starting rotation and while the Cardinals appear to be healthy in the starting pitching department, the group struggles to gain any consistency.  After another poor performance from Mike Leake and a less than stellar performance in the field, the Cardinals find themselves slightly looking up towards the final two wild card spots.

After a 5-0 loss that saw Mike Leake get pulled in the fourth, Kolten Wong face plant in left, Matt Adams get picked off at first and Cardinal hitters whiff ten times against Jake Arrieta, the club finds themselves 1/2 game behind San Francisco and 1.5 games behind the Mets after Friday night.

The Giants lost to San Diego 7-2 after the Padres broke open a 3-2 game with four in the fifth.

The Mets built their lead by beating the Phillies 10-5 and using six different pitchers in which none of them went over three innings, including starter Gabriel Ynoa who got yanked in the second.  This was after Terry Collins emptied his bullpen in a 9-8 win in 11-innings on Thursday night and didn’t have his 8th and 9th inning pitchers, Addison Russell and Jeurys Familia available.  They scratched starter Steven Matz for Friday and now things get even more complicated with Noah Syndergaard scratched for Saturday because of strep throat.

One of the wild card spots is there for the taking for the Cardinals, but their inconsistent play continues to come back and bite them.  However, we’ve seen the Cardinals change momentum as quickly as the weather does on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.  Perhaps the club can turn it around this weekend as the Cardinals rely on rookie Alex Reyes and ace Carlos Martinez.   Reyes has held the Cubs scoreless in 7.1 innings pitched.

Wild Card 
NY Mets 82 72
San Francisco 81 73 (-1)
St. Louis 80 73 .523 (-.5 behind SF, – 1.5 behind NY)